The Manchester City of today is a hugely successful behemoth, a trophy-gobbling machine that until Newcastle’s takeover were by some distance the richest club in the world.
With Pep Guardiola at the controls, City may encounter difficulties from time to time but it’s all relative.
They might lose at the quarter final stage of the Champions League but then go on and win it the season after. They may come unstuck up at Newcastle but that defeat only motivates them to put together a formidable run and claim another title.
They are occasionally a victim of VAR but then again, which club isn’t?
By and large, it can be said with a huge dose of understatement that the present-day Manchester City are not a club known for experiencing struggle, or indeed for shooting themselves in the foot. Rather, they shoot to kill.
The City of old however had a very different DNA. Now that was a club with a long-running habit of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, of acquainting themselves with calamity, often at the worst possible moment.
In 1996 the Blues needed to beat Liverpool on the final day of the season to stay up. Alas, in the latter stages of a tight and tense game locked at 1-1, misinformation relayed to the players had them believe a draw would be sufficient.
When a gung-ho approach was urgently needed, City kept the ball near the corner-flag, seeing out time.
Going back much further, this is a club that won the league title in 1937 then promptly got relegated the season after, scoring 80 goals along the way.
It took awhile for this unfortunate trait to become associated with the club. When it eventually was it simply became known as ‘Typical City’.
And on this day in 1961 the curse struck again, typically surreal and typically – in hindsight – hilarious.
That’s because sixty-three years ago, City’s young and brilliant striker Denis Law somehow managed to score six times in a single match, and still end up on the losing side.
It was the FA Cup fourth round and the Blues had been paired up with Luton Town, away. Naturally enough the visitors were favourites in the football odds, the Hatters residing a league below, but this was a deceptively tricky tie at Kenilworth Road. An upset felt possible.
That was until Law began his one-man spree, firing goals from every angle and all in atrocious weather. The pitch was later described by one journalist as “a beach with the tide just out, then deep mud, then a shallow lake.”
It was nigh-on unplayable, unless you happened to be Denis Law, one of the greatest centre-forwards this country has ever produced.
Here he was, just 21 years of age, in his element in the elements.
Only the weather worsened further. Frankly it all felt a little ridiculous, 22 men running around kicking a ball in such extremes, as spectators struggled to even see them through the torrential rain.
Which is why on 69 minutes, with City comfortably ahead 6-2 and Law on the cusp of making history, referee Ken Tuck called a halt to proceedings. The match was abandoned.
The young striker took the decision with good grace. After all, the game would be replayed. He could make a difference again.
And he did, the Scottish master-poacher duly scoring once more in the rearranged match.
But let’s not forget what we’re dealing with here. Typical City. A club that went out of its way to find a discarded banana and step on it willingly.
In conditions still unsuitable for competitive sport, Manchester City contrived to lose the replay 3-1.
*Credit for all of the photos in this article belongs to Alamy*
